Authorities switched off 9,304 German phone numbers in the past three months. Scammers had used the numbers to push fake investments. Officials call the crackdown Operation Herakles.
Cybertrading scammers build fake investment platforms online, then call people out of the blue. On the phone, the scam callers pose as brokers and promise high returns on stocks, crypto, or commodities.
Any money victims send never reaches a real investment, so they usually lose every euro they deposited.
WARNING: Cybertrading fraud victims often don’t realize for months that they were defrauded. The fake platform keeps showing a rising balance that isn’t real.
The telecom regulator Bundesnetzagentur led the latest round of Operation Herakles. Its partners included the financial regulator BaFin, prosecutors in Karlsruhe, and police in Baden-Württemberg. Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and Austrian police joined in too.
This round’s 9,304 shutdowns bring the Operation Herakles total to 13,397 German phone numbers and 491 Austrian ones.
Operation Herakles knocked out about 3,500 phone numbers in December 2025 alone. Its agencies also took more than 2,200 fraudulent web domains offline in June and October 2025.
Scam callers often work from call centers abroad but get their German phone numbers through telecom resellers. Telecom providers now have to tighten their checks on those resellers, so German numbers should get harder for scammers to come by.
How Can You Spot and Avoid Cybertrading Scams?
Each of these warning signs is a red flag on its own:
- An unsolicited call or message from a broker you have never contacted
- Pressure to deposit money quickly, then pressure to deposit more
- A platform that cannot show the BaFin license every German investment service needs
- Promised returns well above normal market rates
Four steps help protect your money from cybertrading scams:
- Check any investment platform against BaFin’s public list of licensed providers before you deposit money.
- Hang up on any broker who calls you first, and check the offer yourself.
- Never share your banking login, ID documents, or one-time passcodes with someone who called you first.
- If you deposited money and suspect fraud, report it to your local police (Polizei) and to BaFin.
